I GAME, THEREFORE I AM

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Episode 23 or FemShep Friday and the ME3 Demo

Did you get your early ME3 demo code?? We got our codes on FemShep Friday. Any coincidence that the early demo dropped on FemShep Friday? I think not!

This is how The Relevant Wife (Mrs. Captain Awesome)
games with little Baby Awesome!

If you have to wait until Tuesday, don't worry. It's totally worth it! In honor of FemShep Friday, The Irrelevant Gamer celebrated by letting me, The Relevant Wife, have first crack at the ME3 demo. All I can say is wow!

Heck yeah! Thanks for the FemShep recognition BioWare :-)

When BioWare wants to hit you, they hit you hard! In the opening sequence alone, I was tearing up even though from earlier articles and game play reported from the different conferences, I knew what to expect. You immediately understand what's at stake in ME3. You can't save everyone, but gosh darn it you'll do everything you can to save as many as possible.

With the demo, you can see the new improved changes the BioWare team has made. You can use Kinect to speak the lines during conversations, which is really cool. There are new biotic powers and of course the Omni-blade!! There are subtle differences in the controls, but after a few minutes you won't notice them. The new way Shepard moves is a vast improvement over the first two games. You can actually jump over objects and climb easily instead of taking cover and then moving over and up things. As I was getting used to the new controls, my FemShep was rolling and dodging unexpectedly. That was quickly cleared up after a few minutes of playing.

It's also nice to see that you comrades in arms are more useful in combat. They use their powers and special abilities without you having to direct them the majority of the time. This has pluses and minuses. Great to not have to direct so much, not so great because they may use a particular power on one enemy that you wanted to direct them to use on another.

I was also pleased to see that during the options set up, you can specify to have Shepard's helmet and all other characters' helmets off during conversations. It will be nice to make sure you see everyone's faces during dialog time. Not a huge change, but a really nice option they included.

On an unrelated note, we have a bone to pick with BioWare. We just got our Art of the Mass Effect Universe book. Such beautiful art work and we were enjoying it immensely until we got to the ME3 portion. We can't look at it any more because of all the character spoilers!! For instance (Spoiler alert, roll over to see text):

Jack has hair and you meet a Prothean!?!?

So now it's sitting on the shelf staring at us, enticing us to look. But we must resist until after we complete ME3. Shoot BioWare! Why'd you have to go and be like that? (We still love you though.)